BRISBANE'S new road tunnels, Clem7 and Airport Link, might be masterpieces of civil engineering that will one day save the city from gridlock and perhaps even turn a profit for whoever owns them by that time.

But to speed that time along, the operators of these fancy new pieces of infrastructure and Brisbane's other new toll road, the Go Between Bridge, need to add another ingredient - common sense.

The Courier-Mail reported yesterday that every day, hundreds of motorists ignore demands to pay tolls. On the Clem7 tunnel alone, around 340,000 drivers a year are failing to pay the $4.05 toll on time. That's roughly 100 drivers a day, or one in every 25 trips.

Airport Link's operator BrisConnections is in a trading halt, which limits its ability to reveal its default rate but on the Go Between Bridge, on the latest figure, nearly 74,000 motorists a year are dodging the $2.50 toll.

That's a reasonable slice of revenue, which the tunnel and bridge operators then have to try to recover through a lengthy debt recovery process that can see, in the case of the Clem7 tunnel for example, the $4.05 toll turn into a fine of $154. And that's before the State Penalties Enforcement Registry begins to chase recalcitrant toll-evaders.

No doubt some motorists set out with the express aim of never paying their tolls but for many others, the first they know that they owe money is when they receive a letter of demand.

The main problem, easily fixed, it would seem, with just a bit of common sense, is poor signage, which fails to inform motorists clearly and simply what their tollway journey will cost them.

As RACQ's executive general manager (advocacy), Paul Turner, notes: "Once upon a time motorists knew well in advance of coming to a toll road or bridge exactly what the cost would be. But now, many people often have no idea until they receive a massive bill in the post".

The RACQ recently completed an extensive study on tolls, which found that every one of Queensland's five toll roads, in contrast to Sydney's toll roads, lacked "the pricing information required to make an informed choice".

It called on local operators not only to reinstate toll prices but also to improve payment details on their signage, another commonsense suggestion.

Improved signage alone might not fix the problem of toll-dodging but as things stand, even when drivers do try to pay their bills on time, they can run into difficulties.

Motorists leapt to their own defence yesterday in response to our coverage of the extent of unpaid tolls, blaming not only poor signage but also heavy bureaucracy, technological shortcomings in licence plate-reading technology and confusion among motorists about how to pay their bills.

The idea of free-flow tolling makes sense and is a vast improvement on those now-gone days of queues at tolling booths, but now that it is here tollway operators have a real responsibility to make the process as hassle-free as possible.

It is not sufficient to set up a highly automated system that penalises unwary motorists who, either through ignorance, confusion or frustration with a decidedly non-user friendly payment system, don't pay their tolls on time.

This isn't to suggest that motorists shouldn't be personally responsible

for their actions but it is to suggest that if the toll road operators showed

a bit more common sense, we might all be winners.

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Sticking to a good policy

AUSTRALIA'S first vaccinations were administered in 1804 and since then a comprehensive regime of childhood immunisation has saved countless lives and delivered us a society largely free of diseases which once had the potential to devastate communities.

The Brisbane City Council will today unveil its new free immunisation program, available to children up to the age of eight years.

It's a great community initiative and one that will provide enormous benefits.

There is a small but vocal anti-immunisation movement in this country but it can't argue with a science that has provided immeasurable good for more than two centuries.

Doctors warn vaccination rates need to rise in Queensland.

This program will promote that - and the good health of our children and our whole society.

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Responsibility for election comment is taken by Michael Crutcher, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld, 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND. (ACN 009 661 778). A full list of our editors and journalists, with contact details, is available at couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/ourstaff.

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